SOMA residents take a page out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in protest

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — A couple dozen South Orange-Maplewood residents gathered Sunday, Aug. 26, to protest the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The protest began at Maplewood Train Station and continued at South Orange Train Station.

According to Amy Higer, one of the protest’s leaders, some of the main reasons they oppose Kavanaugh are his track record on issues like health care, environmental protections, voting rights, workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights and immigrant rights; and his belief that a sitting president cannot be indicted or should even be investigated.

At the protest, participants dressed in red robes and white bonnets, a la the titular characters from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a dystopian science fiction novel in which fertile women are assigned to prominent married men to produce children for the married couple, similar to Hagar for Abraham and Sarah in the Bible. According to Higer, the protesters dressed like this to draw attention to President Donald Trump’s statements regarding his desire to see Roe v. Wade, which allows women to have abortions, overturned.

Protesters carrying signs marched silently through the two towns’ centers and handed out fliers to passersby, encouraging them to contact their senators to oppose Kavanaugh and urging them to vote in the next election cycle.

Photos Courtesy of Amy Higer

  Abortion, FEATURED, Maplewood Train Station, Roe v. Wade, SOMA Action, South Orange Train Station